HJNO Mar/Apr 2024

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  MAR / APR 2024 59 Rebekah Gee, MD, MPH, MSHPR, FACOG CEO/Founder Nest Health ily, holistic primary care at home to lower- income families, beginning in the greater New Orleans area. Various programs and solutions have demonstrated improved outcomes for mothers, children, and, in some cases, families. While currently narrow in prac- tice and limited in reach, the programs hold important lessons for creating new models that provide full-family care at home and drive long-term health and so- cial improvements across family members and generations.The impact of convenient, at-home, whole-family care delivered by home visiting is clear. The state of primary care today in the U.S. is not optimized to best serve families, but the promise of home visiting programs is a proven sign of hope and progress. n REFERENCES 1 NYC Health. “Health Department Announces New Home-visiting Services for First-time Par- ents and Infants, With Focus on Equity.” Press release, Dec. 7, 2021. https://www.nyc.gov/ site/doh/about/press/pr2021/home-visiting- services-for-new-parents.page Rebekah Gee, MD, MPH, MSHPR, FACOG, is an OB- GYN and CEO/founder of Nest Health,a home visiting and virtual care company focused on whole-person primary care for families with children. Prior to founding Nest, Gee served as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health where she over- saw the implementation of Medicaid expansion and focused efforts on reducingmaternal morbidity and mortality.Gee served in numerous state and national policy roles, includingmedical director for Louisiana Medicaid,medical director forTitleV,and director of Louisiana’s Birth Outcomes Initiative. In 2017, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Gee lives in New Orleans and is married to David Patron. She is the parent of five, including two sets of twins. There have been a small number of pri- vately funded start-up organizations cre- ated across the country focused on home visiting, many of which are focused on care for elderly populations or urgent care. For example, Dispatch Health partners with providers and health systems to allow them to deliver care into patients’ homes for those with commercial insurance. Per- ry Health provides at-home diabetes care to seniors, covered by Medicare. Larger hospital systems and networks have built their own home visiting services as well. For example, Oschner’s Home Health pro- gram provides specialized care at home to patients aged 65 and over. One program focused on primary care for families is Nest Health. Nest Health is a value-based healthcare practice providing whole-fam- U.S. adults are the least likely to have access to home visits by a primary care provider. Source: The Commonwealth Fund. “2019 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians: Primary care physician or other health care professional at practice frequently or occasionally makes home visits.” Surveys Dec. 10, 2019. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/surveys/2019/dec/2019-commonwealth-fund-international-health-policy-survey-primary